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“What forms?” Jonathan asked as he reached over and stole the bowl of meatballs from her.
“Mikey’s adoption papers to officially make her a Bradford,” Reese said with a warm smile, making her swallow hard as the meatloaf that she just ate turned over in her stomach.
“You’re going to be a Bradford?” Jonathan asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
“Just as soon as she signs the papers,” Reese said, shooting her a wink that had her lips pulling up into a weak smile.
“Before I forget, you have a doctor’s appointment after school tomorrow, so try not to get in trouble,” her mother said, making Mikey realize why they were having spaghetti and meatballs tonight.
“Didn’t you just have a doctor’s appointment?” Jonathan asked with a satisfied sigh as he helped himself to the bowl of spaghetti.
“Well, I have another one,” Mikey said as she reached for another slice of Italian bread so that she could have something to keep her hands busy.
“What for?” Jonathan asked as he reached over and plucked the bread out of her hand and took a bite.
“Have you always been this nosey?” Mikey asked, even though she was tempted to tell her mother that she didn’t need a doctor’s appointment, but…
She didn’t want her to worry.
CHAPTER12
“Why would I lie to you?” Chloe asked the small girl who was making her life a living hell.
“Because you’re a traitor,” Katie bit out with a glare as she pushed her glasses back up her nose before dropping her hand away so that she could once again gesture for Chloe to get on with it.
“There’s nothing under your bed,” Chloe said as she slowly exhaled, praying that her little sister took pity on her and-
“Is that what they told you to say?” Katie drawled, watching her curiously from where she sat on the bed with her back against the headboard, the wiffle bat that Chloe gave her with the hopes that it would be enough to get her sister to take pity on her and let her sleep, hugged tightly against her chest.
“Yes, yes, it is,” Chloe said, feeling a headache coming on as she stood there, slowly rubbing her temples with her fingertips as she struggled not to think about just how exhausted she was or the fact that it was the first day of school and she was already falling behind. She needed to finish reading the first two chapters for history, read her notes, and figure out how she was going to be able to pay for college when she couldn’t even get a job.
Taking care of Katie was a full-time job and-
She wasn’t sure how she was going to do this. Even with scholarships and loans, she wasn’t sure how she was going to manage to pull this off if she couldn’t get a job. The money that her parents left for her and Katie had been spent on paying off the mortgage and covering the rest of their medical bills.
When she turned eighteen, she could sell the house, but Chloe didn’t feel right selling something that meant the world to her parents, which meant…
God, she didn’t know what that meant.
She just knew that she had two years to figure it out.
“I knew it!” Katie bit out as her eyes narrowed dangerously on her seconds before she raised the wiffle bat and gestured for her to get on with it.
“Please don’t make me hurt you,” Chloe mumbled as she dropped her hands away.
When Katie simply glared, Chloe slowly exhaled as she turned around and started the ten-minute process all over again, checking the hallway, the bathroom, the linen closet, and her room before making her way back to Katie’s room, where she checked the closet, under the bed, and when she saw the look that her little sister was sending the dresser, she looked behind it, under it and then, she checked every single drawer knowing her sister well enough to know that she wouldn’t be happy until she did.
Once she was done, Chloe turned around, opened her mouth and-
“You didn’t check the stairs,” Katie pointed out.
“Yes, I did. I looked the first five times that you demanded that I look,” Chloe said with a helpless gesture towards the hallway, already knowing that Katie wasn’t going to drop it until she looked again.
“You need to look again,” Katie whispered hoarsely as her gaze shot to her bedroom door right around the time that Chloe resigned herself to looking again and-
“There’s nothing there, brat.”
“You don’t know that,” Katie said as they watched Cole finish climbing through her bedroom window.
